Sep 2, 2010 
An oil platform in the Gulf owned by Mariner Energy caught fie and exploded this morning. The platform is about 80 miles south of Louisiana. News stories say the oil rig crew were all rescued and so far no one knows if oil is leaking. Mariner Energy is owned by the Apache Corporation.
Already the usual tools are writing passionate screeds about why this doesn’t prove the oil drilling moratorium is justified. These screeds will be popping up online any minute now.
From Think Progress:
Just yesterday, however, the Financial Times reported that employees from Apache and Mariner, along with thousands of oil industry workers, rallied in Houston to protest the Obama administration’s offshore drilling moratorium that was designed as a safety precaution after BP’s disastrous Gulf oil spill. A Mariner Energy employee chastised the Obama administration for its drilling moratorium, which would not have affected the rig that exploded today:
Companies ranging from Chevron to Apache bussed in up to 5,000 employees to the Houston convention centre to underline to Washington the industry’s contribution to the country. [...]
“I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,” said Barbara Dianne Hagood, senior landman for Mariner Energy, a small company. “The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the gulf coast, gulf coast employees and gulf coast residents.”
Apache Corp. recently agreed to buy BP assets in order to help the British oil giant meet its financial obligations as a result of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Excuses coming in 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …
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